Irregular Verbs in French in the Present Tense

 

What Is an Irregular Verb?

80% of verbs in French are ER-regular verbs, meaning they follow ONE regular pattern. Unfortunately like in English, these verbs are not the most useful, because Fate made sure you will learn the irregular verbs by making them the most used. Try to avoid using, to be, to have, to go, to come….However don’t go in panic mode. These verbs follow conjugation patterns that are not the same as the regular conjugation patterns in some or all forms of the verb but still there are still several recognizable patterns present. For example, whereas the ils/elles regular ending typically contains ent, the irregular ending will usually contain ont. Also, the vous ending in irregular verbs often contains an ez just like the regular ending, making it more easily recognizable as a vous-form conjugation. But, as they are irregular verbs, keep in mind that not all of them will follow these patterns, which is why they are labeled irregular verbs in the first place.

Common Irregular Verbs

Here are five of the most common irregular verbs—être (to be), faire (to do/to make), aller (to go),  and avoir (to have)—along with their conjugations in the present tense:

Etre Je suis Nous sommes Tu es Vous êtes Il   est Ils      sont

Avoir J’   ai Nous avons Tu as Vous avez Il    a Ils      ont

Aller Je vais Nous allons Tu vas Vous allez Il    va Ils      vont

Faire Je fais Nous faisons Tu fais Vous faites Il    fait Ils      font

You can see several patterns within the verbs.This helps cut down on the memorization necessary for learning them. However, it is important to learn all of the forms individually because these are very common verbs and ones you will see and use quite often.

Common Irregular Verbs following a je/tu/il/ils pattern VERSUS an Infinitif/nous/vous pattern.

 

The most common of these is Vouloir. As long as you know the infinitive and the “Je” form, you are ok.

		Vouloir
Je	veux
tu	veux
Il/elle/on	veut
nous		voulons
		voulez
	veulent

You know that the ils form will end in ENT you know that the stem is VEU. Now you need a consonant to link the 2. Just used the one in the infinitive and the  nous & vous forms : L

Exercise:
Do the same with DEVOIR  ( je dois) and POUVOIR (Je peux). Easy as long as you know the infinitive ( Devoir) and the je form/ dois;

Expressions with Avoir

Some people got confused about when to use Etre or Avoir.
Exactly like in English,          Etre is followed by an adjective
Je suis anglais/                     I’m English

Avoir is followed by a noun.

J’ai faim                                 I have hunger/ however used the natural translation I’m hungry

• avoir faim                               (to be hungry)
• avoir soif                                (to be thirsty)
• avoir sommeil                        (to be tired)
• avoir peur                               (to be afraid)
• avoir raison                            (to be right/correct)
• avoir tort                                 (to be wrong/incorrect)
• avoir mal                                (to be sick/not feel good)
• avoir chaud                            (to be hot)
• avoir froid                               (to be cold)
• avoir ___ ans                         (to be ___ years old)

Simply conjugate the verb for your subject, and you can apply this expression to anyone. For example, to say She is tired, we take the word for she, elle, and conjugate avoir for it, giving us elle a; then we add sommeil to the end. The final sentence is Elle a sommeil, which mean She is tired.